Glass Heart
by ChikaAnn
Summary: On the orders from her Keeper, Deshanna, Ly'ria is on her way to the Conclave held by Divine Justinia V with hopes of returning home or to a new freedom in two short weeks. Though, someone ruins those plans and now this Dalish elf is thrust into the spotlight, fear of exposing her clan of its' lies and fear of the end of the world are the only things keeping her moving forward.


Slowly, the darkened amethyst eyes opened, revealing the Fade once again. The young elven woman knew she needed to stop allowing herself to drift to these places in her sleep, but she couldn't bring herself to stop coming. In front of her were the beautiful fields from the farmlands that belonged only to the Hinterlands. The sound of a twig snapping behind her had her tensing. She slowly brought her hand to her chest, gritting her teeth when her left hand touched her chest. That shouldn't be there.

_Turn around._

With her heart in her throat, she did the one thing she knew she shouldn't do. She listened to that little voice in the back of her head and turned.

_He's waiting for you._

_You've wanted this._

Her throat caught her breath as she slowly opened her eyes again, meeting the dark eyes of her old lover. He had taken everything from her, yet he had not taken enough. She swallowed the dry lump in her throat as she watched him. On a normal night, he would have turned away and disappeared into the burnt and broken forest that loomed behind him. Tonight, he walked towards her, hands tucked behind him and chin raised as he moved around her. "Is that how you see me, Ly'ria?" He stood behind her now, looking up at the burnt forest with her.

Ly'ria could hear the hurt in his voice, it made her chest ache. She risked the glance back, seeing he was half a step behind her. She turned slowly, feeling his hand brush her left arm. "Why now?"

Solas gave her a small grin as he looked down at her, his hand moving up and brushing away a fly away hair. "Why not now?"

As Ly'ria turned to face him, the area around them changed and they were back in Haven before the avalanche. Before either of them would admitted they had feelings for the other. Ly'ria squeezed her eyes shut and forced out a hard breath, not wanting him to see what effect he had on her. And then she heard it, the slow start to her favorite tavern song, he was baiting her. She opened her eyes suddenly, seeing a flash of amusement cross his eyes. "I still amuse you, Solas?"

The older elf couldn't help his chuckle as he took her hands, spinning her in a slow circle as the tavern song thrummed along. "Once the Inquisition disbanded, you became very hard to find, ma vhenan. Did you come back here?" As the two danced, the area changed once again, landing the two just outside of Wycome. He met her gaze again, seeing tears burning in those brilliant purple pools. "Vhenan-"

Anger churned in her stomach; annoyance flared her nostrils as she tightened her grip on the dagger that was suddenly in her hand at her side. "If you _actually _cared about your people…" She hissed, unable to stop the tears as they spilled over and down her cheeks as she glared up at him. "You would have helped them-" She lashed out; the dagger aimed for his torso, a surprised noise leaving him as he stumbled to get away from her…

* * *

_I guess I should step back and explain myself. My name is Ly'ria Lavellan. I am an unwilling participant in the series of events that led to the rebuilding of Thedas after Divine Justinia's failed attempt at a Conclave ended up with everyone but myself dead. After a while of getting used to the… to that _**thing**… _I counted myself as one of the lucky few. But life is never that easy, is it? Would you listen to my story? It is… long and full of regrets._

* * *

"And you're sure that _I_ am the one that is to go? Why not sister? She is faster than me. A skilled hunter. I'm nothing but a magic caster." The brunette argued, pleading with her Keeper as she walked around her tent, piecing together a run bag for her First.

"Ly'ria, you must believe in yourself more, you are my First for a reason. The humans are having this Conclave and we need someone there." The Keeper held the bag out for her, frowning at her. Ly'ria was one of the only three magic casters in their clan, and she was very skilled. She also knew her way around a bow and a dagger if she needed it. The Keeper reached out, brushing Ly'ria's wild auburn hair from her face. "You have done nothing but help this clan, Little Wolf. But we need this last favor from you. We need to know what's happening between the Mages and the Templars, we fear that the Templars might try to take advantage, that could be bad news for us."

Ly'ria frowned and looked away, holding the run bag that had been gathered for her. "You're right, I'm being selfish. I don't want to deal with the humans. They always judge us." She pulled her chin up and puffed her chest out. "Fine. I'll leave before the sun rises tomorrow. I have four days to get there, correct?"

Relief seemed to flood the Keepers eyes as she nodded. "Yes. Four days." She paused, catching amethyst eyes with her own pale green ones. She reached out, gently grabbing the girls' arm to stop her as she walked around behind her, slowly putting a necklace on her. "And Ly'ria… you know what this conclave is, do your best to not let them know that you are a mage-"

Ly'ria frowned when she felt the cool metal of the necklace touch her skin, it bore an amulet; one embedded with a magic from her Keeper to lower the chances of her getting outed as a mage. "We haven't informed the humans or the other Dalish of the mages we have; I know. The clans' secret is safe with me." She ignored all of the silent whispers around her as she walked away from her Keeper, knowing her clan was a mix of confused on why she was chosen to go and excited that she was leaving. And worried that she might mess up. While she was skilled in many things, Ly'ria had a temper. She was constantly getting into fights with the men over silly things, to them anyways. Ly'ria had lost her brother to an accident and still blamed one of the hunting groups for it, if they had been faster… if they had believed her when she said something was wrong…

"Ly, are you really going?" A scrawny male walked over to her when she reached her Hart, an elk like beast that hated anyone but Ly'ria near it. The male stayed a few steps back, seeing the beasts' nostrils flare. "I'll miss you, Ly."

"Mmm." Ly'ria looked over the Hart, touching its legs and face to make sure it was still in good health. She grabbed a roll of thin cloth, squatting down to wrap the beasts legs. "I'm sure you will, you and everyone else here."

"Don't be like that, Ly. I mean it, I wish it was someone else going. Who else will I talk to? You're the only one that even looks at me."

Ly'ria paused, glancing back at him before moving on to the last leg. "This could be your chance to get in good with the hunting group. You never know." She stood after she finished, patting the beasts side. "Look, Jarea, I was bound to leave anyways, either by something like this, or of my own accord. You can't rely on me forever to stick up for you. Besides, I'll only be gone for two weeks max." She walked by him, patting him on the shoulder as she left.

* * *

Ly'ria woke early, the moon was still out as she grabbed her bags. She paused at the front of her home, glancing back to her sleeping mother. The woman had been in tears the day before, her baby leaving her for some grand mission. Impossible, according to her. Her mother had asked her to wake her before she left, but Ly'ria couldn't. She didn't want to listen to the sobs and the heartache of her mother losing another child. With a sigh, she pushed out of their home and quietly into the wee midnight hours.

The elven girl quietly tacked up her Hart, whispering to the groggy being so it wouldn't wake the clan as they picked their way through the homes. Once they made it to the river, Ly'ria climbed on, clicking the beast into motion. She paused at the outskirts only for a moment, lifting her hand to the watcher who waved her off. "Good luck!" She gave another wave, at least that watcher was one that was proud of her.

* * *

Ly'ria had been making good time, only stopping to let the Hart rest and eat or drink before they were off again. It was nice, the wind hitting her body as the thought of freedom consumed her. She could live like this, free as a bird. She let go of the reigns, leaning back as she threw her arms out, letting the Hart guide itself. She let out a howl of joy as they galloped through the open fields. There was nothing stopping her from just taking off and starting her life over out here. But, she had promised her mother she would return soon. She would go to this Conclave, then go home and say goodbye to her mother and Jarea for good, she couldn't become Keeper. She could feel it in her bones that that wasn't her destiny.

* * *

"Maybe I'll find a cute elf on the way, or a human. You never know, some of them are nice." She giggled as she ate some berries while sitting next to her steed. "What do you think? You've never met a human so I guess you wouldn't know a lot about them." She leaned against him, looking up at the sky. "We have one more day. If we leave now, we can get there by midnight. Or, we could rest for the remainder of the day and get there by midmorning tomorrow."

The beast snorted and lowered its head, going back to sipping from the river. "Yeah, you're right. We'll ride a little longer and then rest." She waited until it straightened up before climbing on and taking off.

The two stopped again once the sun started setting, humans were more frequent in this part, but they all ignored her. Ly'ria climbed down and set up a small fire after she removed the saddle from the Hart. She looked at her reflection in the small pond before them, frowning at the girl staring back at her. She pulled the hair at the top of her head back into a bun, examining the rest. She grabbed her dagger and carefully cut the strands until she was shaved on either side of her head. With a smile, she pulled the bun out and braided some strands on either side. "There. That works."

Morning would come soon, and Ly'ria knew she needed to be well rested. She curled up against her beast, letting sleep take her in it's cold grasp. She tossed and turned some, sleep hadn't been all that easy on this trip, the ground was too hard and the beast under her snored too much for her liking, but even still, she was able to close her eyes.

Ly'ria slowly opened her eyes, the sky was still dark as she sat up. Realization washed over her, she wasn't on the base of the mountain, she was sitting in some kind of battlefield._ There were charred and bloodied corpses around her, frozen in a state of fear. She slowly got up, her heart in her throat as she stood amongst the rubble. She turned in a slow circle, her eyes wide as she took in the wreckage. Why was she seeing this? The Keeper had a dream like this, months before the Conclave, she had told Ly'ria and only Ly'ria of the dream. Saying she was there. Ly'ria took off, running and dodging around rubble and death until she was looking down into a pit, staring into the red eyes of a large black wolf. "Join us. Won't you?"_

_Ly'ria took half a step back, her deep purple eyes wide as two more wolves joined the first. She let out a scream, throwing her arms as the first wolf lunged, its jaws snapping at her._

Ly'ria shot up, fire gathering at her finger tips as she panted, her mind reeling as she looked around. Reality was still the same. She was still in front of the river and her ride was slowly standing, shaking his big body. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, signaling it was a good time to be awake anyways. "Right… time… to go, yeah?" She turned, staring at the Hart as she shakily moved and started tacking him up. "It was just a dream."

* * *

_If only… If only I had listened to the omens… perhaps I would still be whole…_


End file.
